Personal Summary

Kyle Volk's research and teaching focus on the history of the United States, with emphasis on political, intellectual, legal, and economic history during the long nineteenth century (1776-1933). He is especially interested in the history of American democracy; the problem and politics of dissent and difference in American society; capitalism, law, and the American state; civil rights, civil liberties, and the changing meaning of freedom in American life.

Volk's research has been supported by the American Society for Legal History, the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the American Antiquarian Society. His first book, Moral Minorities and the Making of American Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2014), explores the pioneering popular struggles over minority rights that developed out of conflicts over race, religion, and alcohol in nineteenth-century America. Moral Minorities received two major honors from the Organization of American Historians (OAH) in 2015: the Merle Curti Award for Best Book in American Intellectual History; and honorable mention for the Frederick Jackson Turner Award for the Best First Book in American History. His current work explores the problem and politics of personal liberty throughout U.S. History.

Professor Volk advises graduate students studying various aspects of U.S. History. His current and former graduate students work on issues ranging from patriotism, racial prejudice, disability, and social welfare to political economy, environmental politics, public health, and governance in the American West. Professor Volk is accepting both MA and PhD students in the next admissions cycle. Please contact him by e-mail if you are interested in working with him as a graduate student. Current doctoral students interested in preparing an examination field advised by Professor Volk should contact him early in their graduate career.

Professor Volk directs the History Department's graduate program and advises its chapter of Phi Alpha Theta (the history honor society). He founded the department's Lockridge History Workshop and continues to coordinate it each year. Volk is also a Prelaw advisor for history undergraduates and an affiliated faculty member of the African American Studies Program. He was the 2014 recipient of the Helen and Winston Cox Award for Excellence in Teaching and the University of Montana's 2015 nominee for CASE Professor of the Year. In 2016, Professor Volk was named a University of Montana Provost's Distinguished Faculty Lecturer.